Considering cross-cultural interactions: The pastoral peoples of the Silk Roads region and the settled agricultural civilizations adjacent to them did not live in closed or separate worlds. What evidence contained in these visual sources supports or challenges this assertion?
Defining motives: What needs or desires inspired the economic and cultural interactions of the Silk Roads?
Explaining religious change: What do these visual sources suggest about the appeal of Buddhism and later Islam to the peoples of the Silk Roads?
Evaluating the usefulness of visual sources: What do these visual sources add to the narrative account of the Silk Roads? In what ways are they limited as evidence for historical inquiry?